This week it was announced that F1’s premier feeder categories, Formula 2 and Formula 3, will undergo a revamp for 2021. Both series will go to fewer events, F2 going to 8 instead of the usual 12, and F3 going to 7 instead of the usual 9. They will be running 3 races per weekend instead of 2 to make up for the lost events, and to accommodate this, F2 and F3 will not race on the same weekends as they have done for the past 10 years since the GP2 and GP3 days. These are most likely to be temporary changes to cut costs as the world recovers from the economic recession created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other cost cutting measures include a continuation of the current generation of F2 and F3 cars for the foreseeable future and a reduced cost for engines and spare parts.
It can be said that the separation of F2 and F3 in particular, a move done to reduce logistical and operational costs, has disappointed many fans, and received a mixed to negative response on social media. And you can see why. Followers of F1 and both feeder series love the spectacle of ‘super weekends’ where you have all 3 series in one weekend, and particularly the way the Grand Prix Sunday builds up with first F3, then F2, then the Porsche Supercup, and then the main event in the form of the F1. No longer having these weekends will be seen as a big loss for a lot of people. This is also frustrating for those who attend races and like seeing both junior series in person. Fans who don’t have the money to attend two races in a season will not be able to see both series in the flesh like they used to be able to. This also could be seen to interrupt the recent streamlining of the road to F1, as the road to F1 isn’t as obvious for casuals as before.
However the reality is we are currently in the biggest economic recession since World War II, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the world of motorsport, junior series teams will be among the most affected by this, and cost-cutting measures needed to be put in place to ensure the survival of the teams, who will have lost a lot of money due to creditors being unable to fulfil their obligations. And without action, this could well have put many teams in the championships on the brink of financial collapse. Its a shame its had to come at the expense of some of the fan experience, but as much as people may be disappointed by these changes, they probably would prefer that than many of the teams and maybe even the series’ as a whole going belly up. The survival of teams is much more important than the fan experience, and this format will save a third of each team’s logistics budget.
I for one am among the people disappointed by these changes, but rather than criticizing the organisation of the series’ for doing this, I am seeing this as a reality check that even once the world has beaten this virus, it is not going to be the same as it was before March 2020 for quite some time, as the economic ramifications from this will last long into the future. Bruno Michel stated in an interview that these changes will be here for the foreseeable future, most probably until economic conditions allow them to return to the format we know and love without putting teams at risk of financial collapse, of course we don’t know how long that is going to be at the moment. The way Bruno Michel has been talking about these changes indicates that whilst he did confirm cost cutting measures were talked about before the pandemic, the series did not want to go this far. He stated that before the pandemic both series had been in good financial health, but action needed to be taken after the pandemic hit, and this had to be ‘put in place as quickly as possible to ensure the stability of both championships in the years to come‘
So whether we like it or not, this format is happening and we are going to have to contend with it until the economic conditions allow for F2 and F3 to be able to support the same races once more without coming to the detriment of the teams’ financial health. Now a big question is how are they going to choose which races each series supports? Since this change was mooted, my concern was that F2 was going to get prioritised and F3 would simply have to make do with the leftovers. Assuming the 2021 Formula One calendar is basically going to be the 2020 calendar with Jeddah added, and maybe the Dutch Grand Prix moved to a late summer slot, a fair distribution of the races would be this;
Formula 2;
1. Bahrain
2. Monaco
3. France
4. Britain
5. Belgium
6. USA
7. Saudi Arabia
8. Abu Dhabi
Formula 3;
1. Spain
2. Azerbaijan
3. Austria
4. Hungary
5. Netherlands
6. Italy
7. Russia
Bearing in mind when this change was mooted it was stated that F2 would run 4 races in Europe, with F3 running 5. Seen as this will necessitate travel to an unconventionally far location for F2, this could be a good time for F1’s premier feeder category to finally race in the Americas region.
Finally, what format will the weekend take? I am assuming as far as the schedule is concerned each series will see one race on Saturday morning, one on Saturday afternoon and the final race of the weekend on Sunday morning, but aside from the usual feature and sprint races with the top 8/top 10 reversed, what format will the third race be in? Fully reversed grid?
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